Casa Altanera, awarded a silver medal by the College of Architects of the State of Oaxaca in 2019, is a project by the Alberto Calleja studio. This project is located in Puerto Escondido, specifically in the Punta Pájaros area. This house, which embraces the area's reforestation process, is an oasis of design and sustainability in the midst of nature.
With a focus on privacy and connection to the environment, Casa Altanera is divided into three independent operating modules. These modules house social areas and bedrooms, including a master bedroom for two people and four secondary bedrooms for eight people, with their individual and shared service areas. Interaction with the environment is achieved through areas developed in a palapa (palapa), where the dining room, kitchen, living room, deck, and pool are linked in a common space.
Casa Altanera offers a protected and safe refuge in its concrete and wood elements, allowing each inhabitant to define their relationship with the environment. This project represents a synthesis of design, sustainability, and connection with nature, providing a space that invites introspection and the enjoyment of Puerto Escondido's natural beauty. Architecture by Taller Alberto Calleja Production by Arquitectónica Videography by Mavix | Tirso Domínguez Cover photography courtesy of Marcos Calleja Location: Puerto Escondido, Oaxaca
One of the purposes we had with the Casa Altanera project
was the way in which we integrate nature into the place where we intervene.
Additionally, we also regenerate and reforest,
which brought a new life to the space.
I'm Alberto Calleja.
I'm the creative director of the Alberto Calleja workshop,
and we are now in Casa Altanera.
Casa Altanera is located in the Puntapájaros sector,
30 minutes from Puerto Escondido,
on the coast of the Oaxacan Pacific, in Mexico.
The land is contained in a plot of land
that measures 30 meters in front by 100 meters long.
It has a flat topography
with a minimum elevation of 10% at the back.
The house is built in 380 square meters,
and we are building approximately 15% of the total land.
The general aesthetic of the house responds to its materiality.
The house is composed and structured by various types of wood.
We have structural wood, which is made of oak, which contains palapa.
We have all the façades of the strips, which are made of parota,
and in the decks we have alder.
Apart from that, we have concrete floors and concrete walls in clean work.
We darken certain floors of the house
to make it disappear a little at night,
and to make the vegetation flourish a little,
and to have a more discreet relationship
in relation to its immediate context.
The colorization of Casa Altanera responds to its materiality,
and it is linked to the fact that whenever we wanted neutral materials,
we wanted a serene house that was not noisy,
and that somehow its accessories, equipment,
and architectural details would define those distinctive touches.
And then the concrete volumes,
deconstructed a little to mold into what we had as vegetation,
define the rooms and the most private uses.
The materiality of Casa Altanera is basically composed of two,
which is concrete, concrete, and wood.
They are materials that we can manufacture here on site
and we get in our most immediate context.
One of the favorite spaces in the house
is the one that allows me to see the rock that we have to the east,
where there are a lot of situations that are contemplative,
like the people, the fishermen, the fauna, the noise, the force.
And that can be achieved thanks to the fact that we turn the palapa
in a frank direction to this space,
and there is a very kind and beautiful interrelation
that describes the place,
and all that happens from this corner of the room.
Casa Altanera represents the beginning of a lot of work
that we are developing on the Oaxacan coast.
There have been some learning issues,
from all the people who live and inhabit the house,
that one way or another one manages to show a little respect
that must be had for the landscape and for such a special place.
